Alex
by WheresmyTony
Summary: Alexandra Barton. That's her name. The daughter of the worlds two best assassins. Being the daughter of killers and living with a family full of superheroes, chaos has to happen, right? There will always be people that want you dead. But also people that want you to be safe. [Rating T, because I don't know yet where this is going. Slight Crossover with Amazing Spider-man]


_Hello people!_

_So, please just let me explain first. _

_1. Maybe there's a little confusion, I changed my name here twice, sorry for that, but this one should be permanent, because it's also my url on Tumblr and Polyvore._

_2. I have to do this this way, because I don't want to drop my story about the Avengers and Alex. But I just ran out of ideas, of ways to make 'more members' go on, being interesting and such. But I don't want to drop it all so I try to keep this one going, because now I can think of more stuff to write. _

_I have another story going as well, and I am not the best at updating regularly, but I'd like to keep this all going, so, if there are still people keeping up with me, I am most grateful for all of you. _

_3. This all takes place years after 'more members', I just can't keep that story going. Maybe, if I'm ever struck with an idea again, I maybe post it there, but I don't quite think this is going to happen, at least not soon. But I want to continue with the story about Alex and so I'll start this story here, in the hope some will still read this.  
You don't have to read my other two Avengers fics to really understand this one, but still I'd be glad if you'd do^^ _

_Thanks for reading, drop a review and check out my Polyvore (wheresmytony. Polyvore. com) :3_

Arrow after arrow hit the target as Alex stood in the middle of the shooting range. It was already her fifth round but she knew she had to stop after this one. She sighed as she pulled the last arrow out of the quiver sitting on her hip. She nocked the arrow and pulled back the string, her thumb pressed against her cheek. She adjusted her right arm, aiming exactly at the bullseye of her last target. She took one deep breath, her eyes never leaving her mark as her fingers let go of the string and the arrow was released.  
She smiled when she heard the familiar _thwack_ of the arrow hitting its target. She slowly lowered her arm and laid the bow down on the table in the corner of the room.

Alex sighed and went to retrieve the arrows, placing them back in her quiver. She then walked over to the wall and scanned her hand on the barely noticeable touchpad. A part of the wall then slid open to reveal various knives, guns, arrows, ropes, ammo and other stuff, as well as one of Clint's bows.

She sighed once again and hung the quiver down on its respectable hook, then pressed a button on the touchpad and the wall slid closed again.

Alex ran a hand through her hair as she walked over to the elevator with her bow in her other hand, remembering why she came down to shoot in the first place. She still didn't want to think about it. After a moment the elevator stopped and she stepped out into the communal living room, where everybody already lingered. From the kitchen streamed the scent of Steve cooking dinner. Probably with Beth, because she was nowhere to be seen in the living room.

.

Beth was Steve's wife. They've married in the summer when Alex was six. A bit more than a year later, October 24th, they sent a little boy out into this world, James. He just turned nine, not two months ago. Beth and Steve always wanted another child, but over the years Beth had three miscarriages and so they stopped hoping for a wonder. But almost three years ago their little miracle Lucy came along. She was a surprise to everyone and center of everybody's attention. She was going to turn three in barely a month, on January 5th.

But they and Alex weren't the only kids brought into this tower.

When the redhead was three years old, Tony and Pepper brought two at once. On August 1st the twins Victoria and Mason joined the family. And they were both almost hundred percent Tony. No need to say they were really hard to control sometimes. They were both a genius like their Dad. Mason could already do Alex' Math homework when he was seven.  
Victoria built things almost more impressing than Tony's inventions since she turned eight.  
They both skipped one class each already, but they weren't completely like Tony. Well, Victoria was almost completely like Tony. When she was working on an invention, she could be very ignorant to everything else and she sometimes forgot that others didn't think the way she did, she sometimes started to rant about a thing and no one could follow anymore but she didn't even notice and sometimes couldn't understand that other people weren't as smart as her. That was a reason why it was hard for her to make friends. But that didn't really bother her. And she wasn't always ignorant, she often noticed when something was off with someone that others didn't see. And she, other than her father, was very interested in Stark Industries. She'd go to meetings or other important stuff with Pepper as often as she could because at some point, when her mother couldn't anymore, she wanted to take over.  
Mason wasn't that interested in their parents company, but he was very good with other people and never had a problem finding friends, his intelligence was not a problem to him at all.  
But, no matter how different they each were, they both loved to just sit in the lab with their Dad and Uncle Bruce and invent stuff.

But that was still not everybody.

Three months after Alex turned one, on March 07th, Torunn was born. And she wasn't only the daughter of one very great scientist called Jane Foster, but she was also the daughter of the Asgardian Thunder god Thor. So technically, she was a princess.  
But that's still not all. Being the daughter of a god, she was born with an incredible power. She could simply vanish and appear again wherever she likes.  
Although nobody knew about it at first. They found out when Torunn was just a toddler, she was playing with her father who chased her and Alex through the living room, when Torunn just suddenly vanished and reappeared on the couch. The next years she spent trying to control it, because sometimes when she was upset or sad she'd just vanish and appear on the craziest places.  
One time she had an argument with Alex and suddenly found herself in the halls of some school in Italy.

But she had it all under control meanwhile and she'd often use that power to annoy or surprise people, especially Alex.

These were the kids of the Avengers.

.  
Alex walked over to the great couch were everybody was sitting, except of Steve and Beth. She slumped down on the cushions next to Torunn who looked up from her phone.

"Wow you look like pure sunshine, Red" she said with a wide grin, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Alex glared at her and everyone who started to laugh.

"What's wrong, _dorogaya?_" Natasha asked with a chuckle.

"Nothing" she muttered and laid the bow down on the coffetable.

Alex sighed once again when they wouldn't stop asking, and stood up, making her way into the kitchen. She really wasn't in the mood to talk now.

"Hey" Beth greeted with a smile.

"Hi" Alex grumbled and took a seat on the counter.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked, drying his hands on a towel. But Alex just shook her head and he understood, not pressing any further.

"What are you doing for dinner?" Alex asked after a moment.

"Lasagna" Beth answered and put the dishes out of the cupboard. "Would you set the table?"

"Sure" she said, hopping down from the counter and walking back into the living room, setting the great table.

...

"Any news from Dad?" Alex later asked when she and her Mom were driving down into their apartment.

"No" Natasha said. She wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulders and placed a kiss on top of her head when she noticed her discomfort. "_On budet v poryadke , dorogaya_" [he'll be fine, sweetheart]

Alex nodded her head as the elevator slowed down. "_YA znayu,_" [I know] she mumbled when the doors opened and they stepped into their apartment.

"He won't be back until tomorrow, right?"

"I don't know" her mother said with a sigh. "But let's hope so, right" she said with a smile, tugging a curl behind Alex' ear.

"Guess it has no use to try and call him, huh?"

"No, he'll certainly not answer. He will call when he can, don't you worry too much. No news are good news" Natasha said with a little smirk, trying to brighten the mood a bit. But it didn't really work on her daughter, so she tried to change the topic.

"Well, wanna watch a movie or something?"

"No, not really" she mumbled. "I'm gonna read a bit, I think. Goodnight, Mom" she forced a tiny smile onto her face as she placed a quick kiss on Natasha's cheek, then left into her room.

Alex didn't bother to turn on the light, the sleepless city lying under her window-wall provided enough light to walk through the room without bumping into something.

She sighed as she sat down on her huge windowsill, looking out onto the city below.

She wasn't excited about her birthday at all. Tomorrow she would turn sixteen but she wasn't excited in the slightest. Other girls would start huge parties and whatnot but Alex just hated her birthday.

It wasn't the first birthday she spent without one of her parents. On her eighth birthday, Natasha was somewhere in Madagascar. Two years ago they were supposed to be back on December 11th, but they weren't and so Alex and the rest of the family spent her fourteenth birthday two days later in the medical wing of S.H.I.E.L.D. watching doctors fight for Natasha's life while Clint was still not found. That was the worst birthday in her whole life and since then Alex was even more scared when her parents had to go.  
She knew why they left, she knew exactly what they did on missions, she knew the risk they were thrown into.

Once, when she was younger and Clint came back injured and had to stay at S.H.I.E.L.D. she had a talk with Natasha. She explained her daughter why they couldn't leave this business, why they'd always be stuck with it, no matter what they'd do there were always people who wanted them dead. And to stay with their little girl they sometimes had to leave in order to have her safe.

Meanwhile Alex more than understood what she meant. She has found out a lot about her parents past, she asked them a lot and found some information about missions in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database thanks to Mason. Of course she didn't know about all the really horrible things in detail but she knew enough to understand why her parents kept going on missions when she was born.

She also knew what they had to do on missions, she knew that her parents, her whole family, killed people but they killed bad people, people who killed innocent children and families and destroyed villages and whatnot. People who really did not deserve to exist. Her family may kill people but her family were heroes, all of them. They saved the world not only once and they risked their lives for the good in this world. And if this meant to spend one birthday without her Mom or Dad, Alex was okay with it because they made the world a better place.

But even when she knew every little detail about their mission, what they had to do, she knew they were more than capable to fulfill the task, Alex was scarred nonetheless. She knew her parents were the best but still sometimes there were people who managed to trick them, who managed to hurt them and that was what she was so scared of. That at some point there may be people who manage to kill her parents.

Alex was ripped out of her thoughts when her phone suddenly rang beside her.

"Hello?" she answered with a broken voice. She furrowed her brow and touched her cheek, only to find tears on her fingers. She hadn't realized she'd been crying.

"Alex? You're alright?"

Peter.

Alex let her head fall back against the wall with a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment. Of course Peter would immediately hear when something's off with her. He always read her like a book, even when he wasn't looking at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine" she said but wasn't convincing anyone.

"Your Dad's alright, I'm sure" he said after a little moment and Alex frowned.

"Okay, you're getting creepy again, mister" she said and was rewarded with Peter's unmistakable laughter.

"Sorry" he chuckled and Alex looked across the streets where Peter must currently be sitting in his room, a little, but genuine, smile on her face.

"But really, don't worry so much. He will be fine, he will probably kick his ass for being gone so long but he will be fine, trust me" he said with such unbelievable confidence in his voice.

"Alright" she said after a moment with a nod of her head.

Peter always saw when something was wrong with Alex, be it the tiniest problem, he'd still notice just by looking into her eyes. But even when he wasn't seeing her, just by listening to her voice he knew when something was wrong with her. And that always surprised her.

"Oh, but don't worry, I'll distract you. We'll probably end up with you beating the shit out of me again but I'll come up with something" he said so nonchalantly like always. Alex forgot about her thoughts for the moment and a snort escaped her as she leant back and just laughed at her best friend.

"_Ty takoy pridurok"_ [you're such a jerk] she said while chuckling.

"Alright, maybe you haven't noticed during the last sixteen years, but I don't speak Russian"

"No, I really haven't noticed that, I'm sorry friend" she said jokingly and soon she and Peter were laughing like idiots again.

They kept talking about tons of random stuff like always, they kept on talking for hours, completely forgetting the time.

At some point Alex found herself half lying on the windowsill, half way sliding to the floor. She was about to drift of to sleep, she only answered with incoherent sounds and yet again found Peter's voice damn soothing. She could fall asleep or get as calm as never simply by listening to his voice.

"Are you falling asleep again?" This question caught her attention again and she chuckled tiredly.

"Just a bit" she yawned and heard him laugh again.

"Goodnight, little ninja"

"Mhhm, goodnight, little nerd" she said with a grin. Peter once again laughed at her, then cut the line. Alex groaned when the line went dead because now she had to get up. She awkwardly rolled off the windowsill and even more awkwardly managed to stand again. She shuffled across the room, out into the hall and into the bathroom, making herself ready to finally fall into her bed.  
Not much longer and she laid in her bed, starring out the window with tired eyes, her fear about her father forgotten for the moment.

…

In the tower, the whole family made a lot of traditions for themselves over the years.

Every time it was one of the kids birthday, the whole family would wake up early. They then would prepare a great breakfast, decorate the main level (or in the night before) and everyone would stay in their pajamas.

The other kids then would go to the birthday-kids level. Each got a balloon and one of them got a cupcake with a candle on top. Then they would wake whoever's birthday it was and the day would begin.

Alex came up with that tradition when Torunn turned five. She thought it was nice to surprise her 'little sister' on her day, so she planned the whole day, from breakfast to dinner and she came up with tons of games she could play with her and the twins (who were only two and a half at that time). Torunn would still say that was the best birthday in her live, although she couldn't really remember a lot of it anymore.

But from that day on every birthday began the same way, when the kids got older and wanted to spend the day with friends they didn't make a great fuss about it, but still there was a big dinner, big breakfast and always the kids waking each other.

So now, all the adults were running around, preparing the breakfast. When almost everything was ready, they sent down the children, each a colored balloon in their hand and James got the cupcake. Lucy was grinning from ear to ear, she loved birthdays, she loved everything celebration-ly in the tower. She was urging everyone to get into the elevator with her little, high pitched voice, pulling Victoria behind her.

They made their way down to the Barton's level, the elevator ride appearing much longer than usual to little Lucy. Finally, when the doors opened, she raced out of the elevator and Torunn had to pick her up so she wouldn't wake Alex too early. She motioned for her to be quiet and Lucy held her hand in front of her mouth with a giggle.

When they finally managed to get into Alex' room without too much noise, they all stood around the bed with their balloons, James with the cupcake in the middle. Everybody had to stifle their laugh at the way Alex was lying in her bed again.

Every time somebody had to wake her, they found Alex lying on her stomach, arms and legs thrown away from her, half of her pillows lying on the floor and the blanket kicked down completely, her face getting eaten by her uncontrollable red curls.

They waited one moment longer, before Torunn nodded her head and they all began to sing _Happy Birthday_.

After the first line Alex groaned and buried her face even more in her bed. She chuckled to herself at the fact that Lucy was again the loudest of them all, although she wasn't in synch with the rest at all. When they'd finished, Alex groaned one last time and finally sat up.

"Every time the same ugly song, huh?" she said with a tired smile.

"Your tradition" Torunn scoffed, but walked around the bed and gave her 'sister' a tight hug. The others all hugged her as well, Lucy didn't even let go of her. So she had to move around her as she tried to eat her cupcake.

"Guess we'll never stop with the balloons, right?" she asked with little hope.

"Of course not!" Torunn exclaimed with a grin too wide to be real or possible and Alex fell back into her pillow with another groan.

"Alex, you gotta wake up, you know?" Mason suggested, but she buried her face in her pillow, mumbling something that could be understood as a no, and so they all grabbed her left hand and foot and pulled her out of the bed until she slumped down onto the floor, face first.

It took about five more minutes to finally get her on her feet, they almost had to drag her into the elevator, where she all but drifted off again.

When they arrived in the main room, Alex was yet again swarmed by hugs and like always almost crushed by Thor. They all started to talk to her at once, telling her to sit down and eat and whatever. Alex wasn't able to answer anything, but after what felt like years to her, Tony noticed. He vanished for a moment and when he came back, he probably gave her the best birthday gift ever. A steaming cup of coffee.

"Oh thank god" she exclaimed, stepping out of the crowd around her and clutching the cup like it was her life. She was ignoring everyone for a while, just nursing her coffee.  
She was aware of the laughter around her but she couldn't care less at the moment. She would fall asleep right at this moment if it weren't for the coffee.

When she had drowned the last bit of it, she placed the empty mug on the table, sitting down with a sigh.

"Okay, _now_ you can talk to me" she said and everybody joined her at the table with laughter.

They all sat and ate the enormous breakfast and talked and Alex just sat there nursing her second coffee. She just wasn't a morning person, she couldn't talk in the morning. Especially not when it was still pitch black outside.

When they finished breakfast, the adults cleaned up the mess while the kids went down to their respective levels to get ready for school.

When Alex returned to the communal level, everything was like always again. The usual morning with Pepper running behind the twins so they wouldn't forget anything, Beth trying to prevent Lucy from following James to school and Alex and Torunn just standing aside, laughing at their chaotic family.

At some point they had to leave as well, so they quickly bid them all their goodbye and stepped into the elevator, driving down into the lobby of Stark tower. Just as they stepped out, the huge doors opened and Peter stepped in, shaking snow off his head.

Peter was one of the few people, except of the family, who was let into the tower without further discussion. He had to scan his hand, like everybody, and Jarvis would let him in.

"Good morning, Mr. Parker" the AI greeted.

"Morning" he mumbled, ruffling his hair to get the last bit of snow out.

"Hey" he then greeted when he noticed Torunn and Alex. "Happy Friday 13th" he said sarcastically, grinning stupidly at them.

"You too" Torunn scoffed with a smile, slapping him lightly on the back and stepping out of the door. Alex furrowed her brow, but saw her standing in front of the glass doors just looking at the snow falling.

"Come on, little nerd" Alex said with a smirk as she tried to walk past him, but Peter was faster and had her pulled into a hug in an instant.

"Happy birthday, ninja" he mumbled into her hair.

"You know I like to breathe?" she mumbled after a short moment with a little chuckle and Peter finally stopped his Thor impression of a hug.

"Oh, here" he said after a moment as he pulled a box out of his coat pocket.

"I'd prefer to have that instead" she said, snatching the beanie he'd forgotten in his other pocket.

"Come on, just open it" he chuckled, holding the box out to her again.

Alex heaved a sigh with a little smile, taking the box and opening the bow on top. She opened the box and a little gasp escaped her. Inside was a beautiful bronze bracelet shaped like an arrow.

"That's beautiful" she mumbled. "Thank you, Peter" she said, throwing her arms around his neck once more and placing a quick kiss to his cheek.

They pulled apart when Torunn stepped back into the lobby, snow glistening in her long blonde waves.

"You guys coming?" she asked with a grin.

"Yeah, sure" Alex said, putting the bracelet on. Torunn wiggled her eyebrows at her before stepping back out into the snow.

Alex rolled her eyes as she put the box in her bag, put on Peter's beanie she just stole and slipped her hands into her gloves. She then opened the doors, pulling Peter behind her as they and Torunn made their way to school.

…

After school, Peter and Alex just walked around the city. They walked through a few shops, got a coffee and just walked through central park. At some point Alex hooked her arm around his, simply because she was bored and freezing a tiny bit. When it was turning dark, they finally decided to get back to the tower.

They stepped into the lobby, shacking of the snow and gladly taking in the warmth of the room.

"Here" was all Alex said as she threw Peter's beanie at him, hitting him square in the face.

As 'revenge' he grabbed her and tried to pick her up, but she was faster to escape his grip and so they just fell awkwardly into the elevator, laughing the whole ride up to the main level. The same awkward way was how they fell out of the elevator, until they laid on the floor, still laughing like idiots. It took them a while but eventually they managed to stand up again, still laughing.

But their laugh immediately died down when they looked into the faces around them, every single one of them worried and shocked. Alex searched for the face of her mother and she found her sitting at the table. She had reddened eyes and was biting her lip, it looked like she was trying to hold back tears. The fact that Pepper was sitting next to her, her hand on her shoulder as if trying to comfort her, but fighting tears herself, wasn't making the situation any better. Alex looked further around and noticed that everybody looked at least pretty near to tears.

"What is going on?" she asked, scarred and not really wanting to know the answer.

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but in this moment a tall man stepped into the room.

Director Nick Fury, head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Miss Barton" he began and his usual strict and commanding voice was unusual soft. Alex knew what he was going to say, what all this meant. Alex knew it and she refused to hear it. Her bag dropped to the floor, way louder than it was supposed to be. She shook her head, backing of until her back touched the door leading to the stairs.

"Alex" she heard Bruce say, it sounded like somewhere far in the distance, the only thing she clearly heard was the beating of her heart in her ears.

Her breathing quickened, as did the shaking of her head.

"No" she said and pushed through the door, racing up the stairs until she pushed open the door and stepped out onto the roof. She was breathing so fast, it could be called hyperventilating by now, her head was spinning and she just couldn't stand anymore. Her knees gave away and she slumped down into the snow in the middle of the roof.

Her father was dead.


End file.
